Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association eyes new home

When Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association President and CEO Theresa Santoro looks at her organization”™s facilities on East Ridge Road, she sees growth. A lot of it.

The number of in-home patients RVNA serves across 27 towns in western Connecticut, now at 1,200, has doubled in the past five years.

Three years ago, the nonprofit had 55 staff members. Now, it”™s at 120.

Waiting lists have begun to form for drop-in flu shots, vaccines and health education classes, something Santoro had rarely seen before in her eight years at the organization”™s helm.

A rendering of the 22,000-square-foot facility that Ridgefield Visiting Nurse Association plans to have completed by January.

Though RVNA is perhaps best known for the external services it provides to seniors, Santoro and the organization”™s board of directors have known for the past five years that a larger and more modern headquarters would be the only way to adapt to health care reform and the region”™s rising senior population.

In December, RVNA, two months after celebrating its centennial anniversary, broke ground on a $9.5 million, 22,000-square-foot facility, the RVNA Center for Exceptional Care. At 27 Governor St., it”™s a stone”™s throw away from the organization”™s current location, but the center will provide 10,000 square feet of additional space for the 100-year-old private nonprofit to expand current care.

“RVNA has just grown incredibly,” Santoro said. “It”™s a wonderful problem to have.”

On top of in-home services, the organization does a modest business of post-acute care, a health maintenance program and nutrition and cooking classes ”” all of which require brick-and-mortar space to operate. The new site will create room for clinics, health education programs and therapy, and will also serve as an administrative headquarters.

RVNA last year purchased a 1.25-acre parcel of property from the Donnelly family, longtime Ridgefield residents and RVNA supporters who owned the property on Governor Street adjacent to Veterans Park. At that point, ideas began flowing about how to use the space in a cost-effective manner.

“The question was, ”˜How do we increase patient quality while keeping costs down?”™” Santoro said.

The organization conducted a feasibility study asking supporters what they thought of a move to a larger facility. Almost all supporters and patients alike were in favor of the project, Santoro said.

Between June 2013 and December 2014, nearly $8 million of the $9.5 million needed to fund the expansion was raised through foundation and private donations. RVNA initiated The Campaign for Tomorrow, the final public phase of fundraising, fifteen months ago and is now less than $500,000 shy of reaching its total cost.

After December”™s groundbreaking, winter weather pushed the proposed schedule back about two weeks, Santoro said. The goal is to have construction completed in December or January, with an official opening date soon after.

Santoro said she expects a wave of hires ”” nurses, therapists and aides ”” in conjunction with the move, not only to staff the new building but because of the rising senior population that data projections show will continue through 2030.

According to a 2013 U.S. census estimate, seniors age 65 and older make up more than 14 percent of Fairfield County”™s population of 940,000 people. In 2000, seniors made up 13 percent of the county population.

RVNA made 43,000 home care visits in the past fiscal year. It launched the Quality Living at Home program in October 2009, an aging-in-place initiative in Ridgefield and Redding that serves as a 24/7 call center for seniors. It has 545 subscribers. Some of RVNA”™s programs, including March 28”™s annual Health and Wellness Fair, are free, but others are covered through insurance.

Renovating the current facility was never an option, Santoro said. The nonprofit has simply outgrown its quarters, which do not provide viable accessibility for the mobility-impaired, a crucial aspect of providing on-site service, she said.

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi said he was excited for the expansion and that higher patient intake and a bigger staff would benefit the town as well as RVNA.

“It”™s a great move for RVNA and a great move for Ridgefield,” Marconi said. “It could add some economic growth to the community, which is always welcome.”

Now at 115 donors, the project”™s first 100 donors will be enshrined in a centennial circle. Those who still wish to donate can purchase an engraved brick or bench to help RVNA “reach the finish line,” as Santoro put it.

The expansion is still in its early phases of construction, Santoro said, but the RVNA board of directors meets weekly with a construction manager and architect to monitor progress. On March 20, construction crews were pouring cement into the building”™s footings.